Materials

Tools

Drill

Total Cost: $140

Cubby inspiration

One feature that I really wanted in a standing desk is some cubbie
space so that I could keep the desktop clear. The
INSEKT bureau +WORK from Buisjes En Beugels in Rotterdam is a gorgeous shape, and has tons of space inside the desktop.

IKEA hunting

I went to IKEA with a tape measure and started looking around at
furniture, keeping an open mind to what could be used as a desktop. A
lot of the TV consoles seemed like possible desktops, if they could have
very long legs underneath.

IKEA funtimes

I lugged the two items back to my office, to do some construction.

Attaching top to bottom

The tricky bit was attaching the desktop to the leg frame!

Tricky, because if you’ve ever been poor, you know that IKEA wood is not
actually wood - inside the birch veneer is a cavity filled with with glue and
sawdust. It’s not something that a wood screw could go into and stay
put.

So instead, I got six, 3” long, 1/4” bolts, to pierce from the toop surface all the
way through the holes in the frame.

Prep

I marked where to drill the holes for the bolts by flipping the frame
over.

After centereing the frame, I marked the holes with a pen.

Black hole

When it became time to drill, just how vacuous the surface the inside of
IKEA furniture is.
As soon as the bit breaks through the hard top veneer, it
goes into a land of mush. This mush clogged the drill bit quickly, so I
had to back out a few times for each hole.

After the six holes were drilled, I set up the desk, lined it up with
the frame, and dropped in each of the bolts.
I put a fat washer on top of each bolt, since I wanted to make as much
contact with the surface (the hard part) as possible.